On Tuesday, January 30th, nearly 500 crypto-crazed attendees gathered at San Francisco's first ever NEO Devcon (for those of you who are new to the crypto space, NEO is a blockchain project that helps digitization of assets so that users are able to register, trade, and circulate multiple types of crypto assets without a need for their own blockchain). The energy was electric. You could feel it as soon as you walked in. Developers and entrepreneurs from all over the world huddled in small groups chatting about their projects with the excitement that comes from being on the cusp of a technological revolution that'll change the world. Investors were there too, out to find the next unicorn. Everyone felt like they were moments away from hearing about the 'Next Big Thing'.
The group of developers that work on project NEO in the West is called the 'City of Zion'. I am one of those developers. I was there to meet my cohorts in person for the first time and to release the white paper for 'Thor Token', a blockchain solution for the gig economy.
From hearing Da Hongfei's new vision for NEO to Stanford professor Dan Boneh's presentation on bulletproofs, the hits kept coming. As with all developer conferences, there were hackathon competitions which I helped host at the Github office on the first day. The room was packed full of developers excited to install their own NEO nodes to privately test smart contracts they wanted to build.
While many people associate blockchains and cryptocurrencies to high returns on their investment and nothing else, the NEO devcon proved that the root of all cryptocurrencies is nothing but incredible and innovative tech. It was amazing to finally see the faces behind some of City of Zion's projects like NEX, Moonlight, NEO Auth, and Hash Puppies. I not only got to see the vast potential of these projects, but also to meet the very people who will revolutionize the world with blockchain tech. The response to 'Thor Token' was incredibly positive, and the rest of the community was as excited to hear about our company as we were to hear about theirs. One project that caught my eye was Bluzelle, a decentralized database service that offers dApps an elegant storage solution. I spoke with Neeraj Murarka, the CTO of Bluzelle, and he explained how they aim to be as simple for developers to use as 'Firebase'. Thor Token will need decentralized storage to store the user records that we provide to healthcare companies, and I may have already met my man.
The conference was quite the experience, and a one-of-a-kind chance to meet the crypto-heads kicking down the door to a decentralized future. It was amazing to have my hopes confirmed for the community surrounding me and Thor Token, and to know I'll be in good company in my quest to make blockchain mainstream. The first NEO Devcon in the States was a hit — and I won't be surprised if next year's Devcon is 100 times the size.
Image and content credit: Matt Moravec©